


Frustrations

by Rewv



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Office, CEO Choi Seungcheol | S.Coups, M/M, Mentioned SEVENTEEN Ensemble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:14:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24413428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rewv/pseuds/Rewv
Summary: Coworkers can get frustrating, and Wonwoo, Jihoon, Minghao, and Seungcheol know that all too well.
Relationships: Choi Seungcheol | S.Coups/Yoon Jeonghan, Jeon Wonwoo/Kim Mingyu, Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi/Lee Jihoon | Woozi, Wen Jun Hui | Jun/Xu Ming Hao | The8
Comments: 7
Kudos: 134





	Frustrations

“Leave me alone, Mingyu.”

“Oh, what, am I annoying you?”

“Yes, very much so. Now-”

“Ah, ah, ah, no one likes a liar, Wonwoo.”

“The hell are you talking about?”

“Very much so, my ass. You want me around and you know it.”

“I swear to god if your tree branch ass doesn’t get the fuck away from my desk in the next five seconds I’m going to call HR and tell them there’s been a threat to my personal well-being.”

“Go ahead, call them. I have connections.” Mingyu winked, using one palm leaf hand to casually push Wonwoo’s swivel chair into orbit before sauntering away back to his own desk. Using his own pine needle hand to slow himself down, Wonwoo exhaled deeply, removing his glasses and rubbing his forehead before reaching into his desk drawer for an Ibuprofen.

“You know, you should really watch how many of those you take.”

“Thanks, Jeonghan, I’ll keep that in mind the next time I’m restocking. Might need 3 bottles instead of 2.”

“Seriously, I see you down at least three a day. That can’t be good. Maybe you should see a doctor.”

“I’ll take you up on that if you can find a surgeon that removes beanpole coworkers from my personal bubble.”

Jeonghan sighed, leaning on the edge of Wonwoo’s paper-filled desk, Wonwoo desperately removing stacks of papers that he didn’t want to have to reprint because they got crumpled by Jeonghan’s ass. Standing by the printer meant standing barely five feet from Mingyu’s desk, and he was not about to do that for an hour just to please his perfectionism.

“He really likes you, you know. He just wants to be your friend.”

“Yeah, well, maybe he needs to learn that friends don’t ramble about dumb fashion trends to friends for half an hour three times a day.”

“Hey, that’s exactly what he’s been talking about. You have been listening! I think you do actually like him, you’re just too stuck up to admit it.” Ouch. Jeonghan stood up, placing a hand on Wonwoo’s shoulder purposefully.

“Jeonghan-”

“Just think about it, okay? Let someone in for once.” The older walked away, his hand sliding off Wonwoo’s shoulder.

“I let people in…” Wonwoo grumbled to himself, refusing to look up from the document he’d been staring at since Mingyu walked away five minutes ago. The words of the story Wonwoo was editing stared back at him.

_...The boy’s eyes met his captor’s. “No one is coming to save you, little boy.” “That’s not true! My friends are gonna save me!” “What friends?”..._

Wonwoo sighed, pausing a moment to think about what Jeonghan had said. He let people in...right? He had friends. There’s Seungcheol...who’s his boss and is always away on business trips. It’d be weird to call, though. There’s Jun....who’s his neighbor that he’s only seen in the hallway. They always greet each other, though. There’s Jihoon....who works two floors down and who he only sees in the elevator and at the same Starbucks every morning. They complain about work together, though. There’s Seokmin...who works at the Starbucks and knows Wonwoo’s order perfectly even though Wonwoo changes it daily based on his mood. He always tips, though.

And then there’s Mingyu. Who works four desks away. Who always makes time to come over and talk to Wonwoo (Well, more like talk at Wonwoo - there isn’t much responsive conversation). Who has friends in every department and somehow manages to wiggle out of every disturbance complaint. Who Jeonghan thinks wants to be Wonwoo’s friend.

Why?

Wonwoo groaned in frustration and tossed the paper across his desk, grabbing his jacket and stuffing a few pages in his messenger bag before storming out the glass office doors.

“Bye Wonwoo!”

“Bye Mingyu.”

By the time Wonwoo realized his mistake he was already in the elevator.

* * *

“Soonyoung, for the millionth time, I do not know how many stripes the average tiger has.”

“But you’re so smart, you must know!”

“Why does it matter so much?”

“Because I need to know!”

“Then Google it!”

“I can’t do that!”

“Why not?!”

“Because then I don’t get to talk to you!” Soonyoung pouted, trying his best to weasle himself into the space between Jihoon and his desk. The younger just kept pushing his chair forward, staring intently at his currently work-less computer screen like if he couldn’t see Soonyoung, Soonyoung couldn’t see him.

“Soonyoung, have you ever been burned?”

“What?”

“Have you ever been burned? It's a yes or no question.”

“Um, I don’t think so.”

“Well it’s always good to try new things.” Before Soonyoung could respond, Jihoon reached for his coffee and turned to violently throw it at the other, but a hand grabbed his wrist, stopping him.

“I don’t think you want to do that, Jihoon.”

“Let go of me, Seungkwan, he must burn!” Soonyoung recoiled at the determination in Jihoon’s eyes.

“There are only so many HR complaints I can get you out of, Jihoon. You’re lucky the CEO likes you. Otherwise, I doubt you’d still be here.”

Jihoon snarled, loosening the tension in his arm so Seungkwan would release it, but the other took the coffee before letting go, leaving Jihoon empty-handed.

“Hey, I need that!”

“You’ll get it back when you decide to drink it instead of throw it on a friendly coworker.”

Jihoon grumbled, turning back to his desk as Seungkwan walked away, dropping Jihoon’s black coffee in the nearest trash can. Soonyoung remained by his side for a moment, watching Jihoon navigate to the nearest Chinese restaurant's website and order three take-out boxes worth of steamed rice to be delivered to their office building’s front door. He was ready to stuff his face in anger.

“There’s no way you can eat all that by yourself!” Soonyoung said in awe, watching Jihoon input his credit card number - he realized he should probably not know that number, so he quickly averted his eyes.

“Watch me.” Jihoon countered, violently pushing back in his chair and storming out of the office.

By the time Jihoon realized he forgot his wallet he was already in the elevator.

* * *

“Hello?”

“Hi Minghao!”

“I’m sorry, who is this? I think you have the wrong number.”

“Minghao, I’m not gonna fall for that again. I know it’s you!”

“Sorry, I think we’re breaking up.”

“Minghao! Come on!”

“Oh, what’s that- sorry- I-” Minghao hung up, tossing his phone back onto his desk, narrowly missing his mini desk plant.

“You’re such an ass, you know that?” Minghao refused to look up at Chan, who he knew was standing over him with crossed arms and a look of disappointment. He refused to let that absolute child win.

“And you’re here because…?”

“Because you need to stop rejecting him, Minghao. I still can’t believe you use that wrong number trick almost every day and he still falls for it. You know what that means?”

“That he’s dumb?”

“That he trusts you.”

“How the hell does that show that he trusts me?”

“Okay, so maybe it’s a little of just being dumb, but at its core he’s just believing what you tell him. Trust.”

“The fuck do you know about trust, dumbass, you steal things from my desk daily.”

“I do not!” Minghao glared at Chan’s hand slowly replacing a new box of pencils that were on the other side of Minghao’s desk earlier that morning.

“Fine, whatever, I know nothing about trust. But I do know that he genuinely just wants to be your friend, and you need friends.”

“I don’t need friends, they disappoint me.”

Chan struck a stupid pose to complete the reference, face contorting into mockery, before slapping Minghao on the back of the head and going back to his desk.

“Ow! Trick ass bitch.” Minghao grumbled, logging out of his computer and grabbing his half-drunk coffee. The third one that morning. He was done for the day; working from home was calling his name.

As Minghao left the office, his phone rang in his pocket. Without looking at the contact, he picked up: “Hi, this is Minghao.”

“Ha! Got you! You can’t say it’s a wrong number now!” Jun’s voice shouted from the receiver, Minghao having to pull the phone away from his ear to make sure he didn’t lose his hearing.

“Jesus, Jun, what do you want?”

“To talk to you.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t really wanna talk to you.” He could almost hear Jun’s frown on the other end of the line, “Fine, I’ll just hang up then.”

Minghao sighed, knowing Jun was just trying to be his friend, “Jun, I’m sorry, it’s just-”

“No, it’s okay. Love you!”

“Love you, too.” Minghao spoke with his mom daily, so the reply was instinctive.

By the time he realized his mistake, Jun had hung up and Minghao was in the elevator.

* * *

“Jeonghan!”

“What?”

“Did you swipe right on my Tinder profile?”

“Only because you swiped right on mine!”

“And what made you think it was a good idea to match with your boss?”

“The same thing that made you think it was a good idea to match with your employee!”

“Oh, will you two just stop shouting and make out already?”

“Joshua!” Jeonghan and Seungcheol yelled in unison at their COO, who instantly held his hands up in surrender and backed out of Jeonghan’s office, subtly closing the door as he left, leaving the CEO and CFO in an enclosed space together.

Seungcheol turned back to face Jeonghan over his desk, leaning on one hand and pointing at Jeonghan with the other, “We have to fix this right now.”

“I mean, I did it as a joke, but you seem to really care about this, huh?” Jeonghan leaned back in his chair and smirked as Seungcheol blushed, backing off slightly.

“I just don’t want HR to see this and think we’re doing anything together. It’s against company policy!”

“Since when have you cared about company policy? I think half our employees are dating already and if they’re not they really want to. You haven’t said a word.”

There was a moment of silence, Seungcheol seemingly trying to piece together another excuse that Jeonghan could easily poke holes through.

Jeonghan narrowed his eyes, studying Seungcheol’s conflicted expression, “You wanted to match with me, didn’t you?”

"What? No, I-"

“Yeah, you came in here knowing I did it as a joke, but you were secretly hoping it was real.”

“Jeonghan, what are you talking about? I didn’t-”

“You know you can’t hide anything from me, Cheol.”

“I told you not to call me that!”

“No you didn’t, and you’re deflecting.”

“Am not.”

“You sure are.”

“Am not!”

“You’re a child.”

Seungcheol groaned, throwing his head back in frustration and turning to walk out the door, “I think we’re done here.”

“You may think so, but this conversation is definitely not over.” Jeonghan commented, winking when Seungcheol turned around to glare at him.

“No. It’s not.” Seungcheol smirked, catching Jeonghan off guard as he shut the door behind him and left for his lunch break.

By the time he realized what he’d just implied, he was already in the elevator.

* * *

The elevator dinged, and as the silver doors slid open, Seungcheol barely noticed that a hush fell over the previously noisy space. He stepped in with his head down, turning to face the doors and still thinking way too hard about how he’d just ended his conversation with Jeonghan. Had it been too much? Would Jeonghan hold it against him later? Definitely. No doubt about that one. He sighed, running a hand through his hair.

Suddenly, he looked up and realized that the very full elevator was dead silent, every pair of eyes focused on his back. He glanced at the others out of his peripherals for a moment.

"Hello, everyone.” Seungcheol felt strange using such a formal tone, but he wasn’t sure how else to address the moving box full of his employees. There were a few mumbled responses, the greetings all jumbled together in an obvious representation that everyone in the space was frustrated with whatever had happened before they’d stepped into the elevator from their respective floors, all heading to the lobby twenty-five floors down.

“Sounds like you all have had similar days to mine.” Less than a moment after the words left Seungcheol’s mouth there was a flurry of complaints.

“What was I thinking?”

“Yeah, talk about it.”

“It was an instinct, but I shouldn’t have said it!”

Seungcheol nodded, letting the group vent for a moment. Once his silence felt long enough, Seungcheol thought he’d try to be a better boss.

“Hey, do you guys wanna go grab a drink? I’ll pay for coffee.”

There was a beat of silence where it was obvious the employees were looking at each other, confused, wondering if this was some kind of trap.

“Uh, yeah, sure…” Minghao offered, glancing warily at his coworkers, who nodded and mumbled their own agreements.

“Okay, it’s set then.” Seungcheol said with finality, adjusting his shoulders and straightening his posture, resetting. He didn’t notice how silent things were for the last ten floors.

The group of disgruntled employees stepped off the elevator after their boss, glancing between each other again to confirm that they hadn’t been imagining the CEO asking them all out to coffee. In the elevator.

* * *

“So...how’s...business?” Seungcheol asked awkwardly, unsure how to make meaningful conversation that wasn’t about either statistics or sex. Or statistics about sex.

“I mean...good?” Minghao responded, having never even had a passing conversation with the CEO, and completely lacking any sort of intel into the kind of person his boss was. Seungcheol nodded as if Minghao had given him an actual answer, glancing at Wonwoo for help. Wonwoo was the only employee at the table that he’d actually talked to outside of work.

“So...let’s talk about why we were each in the elevator.” Wonwoo said, really only wanting to rant about the goddamn beanpole and his dumb mistakes to someone other than his cat when he got home later that evening. His coworkers made faces, confused by the sudden and strange shift in subject.

“I guess I could start,” Wonwoo put down his highly caffeinated drink - the entire group had ordered the highest level of caffeine allowed - and took a deep breath, “My goddamn tree of a coworker that sits five desks down somehow ends up at my desk every single day rambling about stupid fashion trends and Instagram followers and how he really likes this coworker of his who’s apparently smart and mysterious and intriguing and really good-looking and loves cats and doesn’t have a lot of friends and it’s just so annoying that he won’t leave me alone!”

Three pairs of wide eyes stared at Wonwoo, surprised at the sudden outburst. Seungcheol thought about the rant for a minute, though, and realized, “Hey, Wonwoo, I think he might like yo-”

“Oh my god, you too?! I have the same issue with this guy who works in my department who can’t seem to stay at his own desk and he loves coming over to rant about tigers and his dance classes and this coworker that he says he’s in love with that’s super smart and pretends to be tough and is super talented and really likes white rice and who he just wants to like him back and I just want him to shut up!” Jihoon slammed his own coffee on the table while talking, hardly noticing the puddle forming around the base after splashing over the edges.

Again, Seungcheol thought about the description of the person Jihoon’s coworker was apparently in love with: “Jihoon, I think your coworker likes yo-”

“Are you guys joking?! You both have no idea, there’s this guy I’ve known for a while and he doesn’t work with us but he refuses to stop calling me literally all the time and I keep trying to get him to stop but he keeps calling to talk about his cat and his friends and this one friend he likes that he really wants to notice him that’s supposedly really cool and fashionable and caring and down to Earth and handsome and my phone is literally ringing twenty four seven I can’t get away from him!” Minghao took a long swig of his coffee, joining Wonwoo and Jihoon in looking highly exasperated.

Seungcheol once again looked between his three oblivious coworkers, gaping at how much they were missing in these daily interactions.

“Guys, I think these people are all in love with you.” Seungcheol tightened his grip on his coffee, scared that one of the three would lash out at him. The group stared at him for a moment, then flew into a flurry of denial, spouting ‘no’s and ‘what?!’s.

“Seungcheol, didn’t you match with Jeonghan on Tinder?” Wonwoo countered, causing their boss to choke on his coffee and instantly regret suggesting this meetup.

“You and the CFO? Isn’t that, like, a scandal?” Minghao asked, eyebrows raised.

“I mean, company policy has never been a priority when it comes to relationships around the office, so why would this be any different?” Jihoon asked, matter-of-fact.

“Jeonghan and I are not together.” Seungcheol desperately clarified, “We found each other on the app and both thought it’d be funny if we swiped right, which, of course, technically resulted in a match, but neither of us was serious!”

“He calls you Cheol - not even Joshua calls you that and he’s the COO.” Wonwoo pointed out.

“I told him not to call me that, it’s not my fault he keeps doing it!”

“Do you think maybe he actually likes you?” Jihoon asked, pushing further for the situation to be flipped on their CEO.

“You know I could fire all of you right now.” Seungcheol shot back, instantly shutting them up.

“I think that Chinese food I ordered might be here by now.” Jihoon segued his way out of the conversation, slipping away from the table and out of the coffee shop hurriedly.

“Yeah, and, oh, there goes my phone again, must be Jun calling me!” Minghao pulled his very silent phone out of his pocket and wiggled it in the air like it was some big discovery, then held it up to his ear and dramatically started a conversation with absolutely no one as he walked out.

Wonwoo only smirked at Seungcheol, “You wouldn’t dare fire us. You know we’re right.”

“And you know I’m right.” Seungcheol shot back, “So let’s call it even.”

The two shook hands over the table, grabbing their coffees and heading out the door after their coworkers.


End file.
